Free-- at a price

The problem with free trade is it's free. That's the part opponents of the Mexican truck demo program that got under way last week seem incapable of grasping.

Okay, well, just maybe the U.S. should never have signed the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the seminal treaty that melded-- on paper, anyway-- the U.S., Canada and Mexico into the world's largest free-trade zone.

On the other hand, two points are so self-evident that even a 5th grader should grasp them:

1) The Treaty has been finalized and we (the U.S.) are bound to hold up our end of the deal and all its facets.

2) The Treaty was midwifed well before most of us realized China was due to emerge as an economic mega-giant and, frankly, all North Americans should be glad we at least have NAFTA on our side going forward into a very uncertain future.

In its Editorial today, The New York Times rightly took a pro-business stance and slammed both the Teamsters and the Sierra Club (so don't give me any crap about the Gray Lady being a "left-wing rag") for trying to block Mexican trucks from taking their legal place on U.S. roads.

"Guaranteeing highway safety does not require undermining the nation‘s free trade agreements or its relationship with Mexico," argued The Times. "It is time for Congress to let Mexican trucks through."